Carla Del Ponte (file photo) (epa)
June 8, 2006 -- The chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor has criticized Serbia and Russia for failing to cooperate fully with her office to secure the arrests of suspects wanted for committing atrocities in the Balkan conflicts.

Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, speaking to the UN Security Council on June 7, expressed frustration that Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander General Ratko Mladic remain at large.

She noted that both men are accused of genocide, and asked the Security Council to grant her tribunal the power to apprehend them.

Del Ponte faulted Russia for a lack of action in helping capture fugitive Serbian suspect Vlastimir Djordjevic, who is reported to have fled to Russia. Djordjevic has been indicted for crimes against humanity in the Kosovo conflict.

(compiled from agency reports)

The Fugitives

Ratko Mladic (left) confers with Radovan Karadzic during a meeting in Pale in 1993 (epa)

READ

Ten years have passed since former Bosnian Serb leader RADOVAN KARADZIC and his former military commander General RATKO MLADIC were indicted by the Hague-based war crimes tribunal for genocide and other war crimes. The two fugitives remain at large, despite the obligation of NATO-led peacekeepers and the various governments in the region to arrest the indictees and send them to The Hague. Many people wonder why the most powerful military alliance in history and a host of governments seeking Euro-Atlantic integration remain unable to catch the two... (more)

Coffins of Srebrenica victims being prepared for burial in October (AFP)

SREBRENICA: The July 1995 massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb fighters near the UN-designated safe haven of Srebrenica is the worst atrocity of its kind in Europe since the end of World War II. Since the incident, the name Srebrenica has become practically synonomous with ethnic cleansing....(more)